Oil spill funds in pipeline

Thursday

Oct 4, 2007 at 12:01 AM

REGION - Two bills to help the Wachusett Regional School District pay for a cleanup of the Janauary oil spill at Jefferson School are speeding through the legislature.

A bill to reimburse the district for $150,000 in funds already spent and one to allow the district to borrow the remainder to cover the cleanup costs have both been part of this year's budget negotiations.

Cleanup costs, which are not covered by the district's insurance company, have already totaled more than $250,000 and continue to cost $10,000 per month. The estimated eightyear cleanup is expected to cost upwards of $2 million.

Money spent since January was taken out of the district's operating budget.

The $150,000 grant was included in both the House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2008 state budget, passing conference committee scrutiny, and had been part of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's final budget.

But as a cost-cutting measure, Patrick vetoed 117 budget line items on July 12, including the $150,000.

The next day, State Representative Lew Evangelidis (R-Holden) asked the House leadership to request a veto override. Passage by two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate is required to override a governor veto.

Senator Harriette Chandler (D-Worcester) agreed to request an override in the Senate if the veto made it through its first hurdle in the House.

The House overrode the veto on September 18 and the Senate on September 20.

"The legislators felt it was good use of the grant money to help with this unanticipated cost for the District," Evangelidis said. "We didn't want to see cleanup money having to come from books and other operating expenses that affect children."

But probably most vital to the district is a second bill to allow the district to borrow up to $2 million over 20 years to finance the costs related to the cleanup.

Senators passed that bill on September 27; the bill began to make its way through the House on October 1. Evangelidis expected, the bill to pass.

"The legislation will provide the WRSD with an important tool meeting the ongoing expenses associated with the oil cleanup, which has been damaging to the area's environment and extremely costly to the District," Chandler said.

The bill would allow the district, at the behest of the school committee, to borrow the funds for a period of 20 years. It must notifiy the region's boards of selectmen of any borrowing plan and allow a 60-day period of review. Towns may hold town meetings to express disapproval of the borrowing, which cannot go forward if a majority of the voters disapprove.